Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.

Lincolnshire

Lincoln Fens

By John Armstrong (1709–1779)

BUT on the marshy plains that Lincoln spreads

Build not, nor rest too long thy wandering feet.

For on a rustic throne of dewy turf,

With baneful fogs her aching temples bound,

Quartana there presides: a meagre fiend

Begot by Eurus, when his brutal force

Compressed the slothful Naiad of the Fens.

From such a mixture sprung, this fitful pest

With feverish blasts subdues the sickening land:

Cold tremors come, with mighty love of rest,

Convulsive yawnings, lassitude, and pains

That sting the burdened brows, fatigue the loins,

And rack the joints and every torpid limb;

Then parching heat succeeds, till copious sweats

O’erflow: a short relief from former ills.